


Why I Hate Unicorns

by Burgie



Series: SSO Supernatural Creatures AU [1]
Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 08:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12338859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Jack has a bad experience with unicorns. Jack belongs to SSO-Jack-Wolfwatcher, Z belongs to ZDusk, and Izabella belongs to dizzy-izzy-sso on tumblr.





	Why I Hate Unicorns

Despite the magical nature of Jorvik, unicorns weren't often sighted. So, when Louisa saw one walking past her tree home, she immediately flew from the forest and into the mountains where two of her friends lived. She landed in the woods outside Firgrove first, ignoring the chatter of the plants for once in favour of finding her friend. She was looking for a nine-tailed fox, or perhaps a werewolf if Jack had decided to visit Z today. Though, he might not be in wolf form, considering it wasn't a full moon. Placing her palm gently on a tree, Louisa linked into the greater consciousness of trees.

"Have you seen my friend?" asked Louisa. "She's a kitsune, white with dark blue tips."

"She was here earlier," a great pine tree answered her, its voice a whisper in the breeze from how high up it was. "But she left, not wanting her flame to burn down the forest or injure the trees."

"Thank you. Do you know where she went?" asked Louisa.

"I believe that she went to the mountains surrounding Moorland in search of her wolf friend," said a circle of mushrooms in their tiny voice. Louisa nodded, patting the tree gratefully.

"Thank you," said Louisa, and lifted up out of the forest, flying among the treetops on her way to Moorland.

At last, Louisa landed on the somewhat-barren highland, where a very powerful magician lived. Her werewolf friend didn't usually venture far from here, unless he went to the forest. Despite his predatory form, Jack had a strange magnetism that drew animals to him, and could often be found in the forest with a group of animals surrounding him.

But this time, Jack was, as she'd expected, sitting near the abandoned farm with his kitsune friend, chatting with her as she lay in her fox form at his feet. Jack's own pet fox, Halli, was snuggled up beside the kitsune, possibly for warmth.

"Hello, Louisa," said Jack, looking up at the faery with a smile as she landed in front of them. The white and blue fox got to her feet as well, stretched, and turned back into a girl. Halli barked at this unwanted change, and returned to her master's feet, where she flopped down there instead.

"Hi, Jack, hi, Z," said Louisa. "I have something important to show you."

"Oh? And what's that?" asked Z. "Is it another interesting specimen?"

"It better not be another tree that's two trees mixed together," said Jack. "You dragged us all the way into the middle of the forest to see that one." Louisa blushed, a green colour suffusing her cheeks.

"No," said Louisa. "Not this time. But it is something interesting in the forest: I have sighted a unicorn."

"A unicorn? Really?" asked Z, excitement causing her nine tails to reappear and wag a little. Louisa laughed.

"Yep!" said Louisa. "I saw it walking past my home. Come, I'll take you to my forest."

"Can we walk?" asked Jack. "I don't think you'll be able to carry me."

"Well, I certainly can't carry both of you," said Louisa. "I suppose I can flutter close to the ground in front of you."

"How far are we going, exactly?" asked Z.

"Firfall," said Louisa. "I said it was close to my home. Deep within the forest."

"Oh, great," said Jack with a sigh. "That's a long way to walk, especially when I can't just easily turn into a wolf or fly."

"Take your horse, then," said Z. "We all will, it can be a friendly ride and an excuse for Louisa to ride her horse instead of flying everywhere."

"Umm, I might have left her back at home," said Louisa. "I flew to Firgrove looking for you, Z, and then I flew here after the trees told me where you were."

"Well then, I guess you're flying," said Jack. "I feel for your wings."

"I fly everywhere, they're used to it," said Louisa with a shrug.

Jack and Z got their horses, and Louisa flew in front of them. The three of them chatted along the way, Louisa cooing over the beautiful creature that she'd seen, and a few people heard the chatter and were intrigued.

"Here we are, this is where I saw it," said Louisa, landing on the pine-needle coated floor of Firfall giant forest.

"Oh no, the poor things," said Z. Louisa looked, and saw that a family of three unicorns was surrounded by a crowd of people, all of them taking photos and trying to touch the creatures. Louisa gasped in dismay, and lifted up into the air to land amidst the three unicorns.

"Stop!" Louisa called, holding her hands out to ward off the crowd. "You're scaring them!"

Z turned into her fox form and darted between the feet of the people, changing back into her mostly-human form once she was with the unicorns, while Jack took the more direct route of just barging through the crowd. The little colt headed straight for Jack, cowering close to him.

"Huh, weird that the unicorns are drawn to a guy," said one of the men in the crowd. "It must be his weird animal magnetism thing."

"Yeah," said Jack, though he sounded unsure. He looked upset as the colt nuzzled his hand.

"Hey, back off!" a white-haired girl snapped, pushing through and glaring at the crowd. "They're wild animals, no matter how beautiful they are, and they need their space."

"Thanks, Izabella," said Louisa, pleased to see that the crowd was dispersing under Izabella's glare.

"No prob," said Izabella with a shrug. "They were crowding these poor creatures and also the unicorns. You alright, Jack?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Jack, despite looking definitely not fine. "I'm just gonna... go see Ydris for a bit."

"What's wrong?" asked Louisa. "I don't know if I'll be able to help but I can try."

"It's actually the unicorns," said Jack with a sigh, pushing away the little colt. The little guy whickered and trotted back over to his parents, where they'd moved a little farther away under some trees. Perhaps they were finally sensing the fox spirit and wolf in the group.

"Why?" asked Louisa, but Z looked like she understood.

"It's because unicorns can only be handled by women, isn't it?" said Z. Jack nodded, tears in his eyes.

"First time animals have hurt me, even though I know they don't mean it," said Jack. "It's just... I try so fucking hard to put that behind me, but no matter what I do, the unicorns won't see me as a guy. What am I doing wrong?"

"Oh no," said Louisa. "Jack, that's awful."

"And I know they don't mean it, but it still hurts," said Jack. "What, do I have to drown myself in testosterone or something?"

"That'd stink, don't do that," said Izabella, wrinkling her nose.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?" said Jack. "Be mean to them? I don't want to do that!"

"At least your wolf is male," said Louisa.

"Yeah, Ydris tried to change my biological sex with a spell, but it got the wolf instead," said Jack. "Maybe I have to figure out how to change into a wolf at will."

"That'd be cool and it'd help you," said Z, waving her tails.

"Yeah, if I could only figure out how to do it," said Jack, turning his gaze to his friend. "Teach me your ways, Z."

"I wish I could," said Z. "But hey, we all see that you're a guy, Jack. Now we just have to figure out how to get the unicorns to see that, too." The trio of horned horses walked back over to the four friends, the dam nuzzling Jack's shoulder. He growled, which was significantly more threatening coming from a werewolf's throat, and the mare backed off, rearing and darting away into the trees. Louisa saw her pale blue tail disappearing into the deep mists, and instantly missed her.

"Sorry," said Jack, seeing the wistful look on his friend's face.

"It's okay," said Louisa, turning back to him. "You're far more upset than I am, and I know that I'll see the unicorn again."

"I kind of hope I don't," said Jack. "Anyway, I should go."

"You don't have to," said Louisa. "I can lead the unicorns away."

"No, it's fine, I just feel like shit right now," said Jack. Louisa watched him go sadly, but Z mounted Phantom and rode along beside Jack as they left Firfall via the tricky mountain path.

"She'll be okay," said Z as they rode together.

"Sorry I was such an ass back there," said Jack. "Just... those fucking unicorns. Don't they have eyes?"

"Well, I'm not the resident animal expert here," said Z. "Do you know why unicorns are so attracted to females?"

"I generally try to avoid thinking about that," said Jack. "I mean, I try not to trigger my dysphoria, you know?"

"Understandable," said Z, nodding. "I wish you could just pretend that it's your animal magnetism drawing them to you."

"So do I," said Jack. "So I tell people it's that, but I know it's not."

"Maybe you should come back on a full moon," said Z. "Or you could practice shifting."

"Do you know of any werewolves around here?" asked Jack.

"There's a family of them, actually," said Z. "They live out in Epona if you're up for the ride."

"Will I have to see the Buttergoods or Ivan Drake?" asked Jack.

"No," said Z, shaking her head. "Don't worry, this family hates those guys just as much as those guys hate, well, everyone and everything."

"Alright, I'll bite," said Jack. "Who are these werewolves?"

"The Winterwells," said Z. "The Wolves of Winterwell, or the Winterwolves, if you will." Jack chuckled at the nicknames.

"You mean that Ricky guy?" asked Jack.

"Yeah, him and Walter and Bernadine," said Z. "All werewolves. Louisa told me about them, though she doesn't go there much. Not enough trees for her except in the mirror marshes, and the Buttergoods constantly hit on her."

"Ew," said Jack. "Straight people."

"I'm a straight people, you ass," said Z. "Jackass." They looked at each other in silence, and then both burst out laughing.

The two of them rode together to New Hillcrest, finally arriving in the crescent and riding around to speak with Ricky. They found the young man sitting on his front step, eating a sandwich.

"Ricky, is that rye bread I see?" asked Z, dismounting Phantom.

"Yeah," said Ricky. "I'd prefer a huge, juicy steak, but what can you do? This gives me more energy, apparently."

"You have to feed your human self as well as your wolf self," said Jack, dismounting Dale. "Learned that the hard way. It helps with the change."

"Oh, you're a wolf, too!" said Ricky, grinning at Jack. "Tell me, how do you manage your weird animal magnetism when their natural instincts tell them to avoid you?"

"Uh, I dunno," said Jack. "I just do, I guess. Z said you might be able to help me with a wolf problem?"

"What sort of problem?" asked Ricky. "Is is the shedding? The sex?"

"Should I ask?" asked Jack, concerned.

"No, you should not," said Z. "Trust me, Jack, you don't wanna know."

"Alright," said Jack. "Actually, I came to ask you about shifting. How do you... control it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Ricky.

"You wolfed out in your last competition, which is why you failed," said Z. "Jack here wants to know how you managed to shift when it wasn't a full moon."

"Oh!" said Ricky, and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "That. Well, uh... when you get worked up, you can't always control the shift."

"So to shift, I just have to get my adrenaline up?" asked Jack. "Sounds easy enough, just down a few energy drinks."

"Or get really angry or really, uh... turned on," said Ricky, blushing. Z groaned.

"Ricky whyyyyyy," said Z.

"I didn't need to know that," said Jack. "Wow. Thanks."

"Sorry," said Ricky. "But maybe you should warn your boyfriend."

"I've actually never had that problem," said Jack.

"You might, once you start shifting at will," said Ricky. "But I dunno how to do that. Maybe you should ask my uncle? He's pretty smart, he knows a lot about this stuff."

"Alright," said Jack. "Thanks for the advice."

"Happy to help," said Ricky, and got back to eating his sandwich as the two friends mounted their horses again and rode up to the Winterwell mansion. Walter was outside, polishing an old brass something in the sun.

"Hey there," said Walter, looking up at the sound of hoofbeats.

"Hi," said Z. "Ricky said you could tell us about how to shift at will. Well, not us, more like just my friend Jack."

"Alright," said Walter, putting down the brass thing and cloth and approaching them. Jack dismounted. "So you're a werewolf too, huh?"

"Yeah," said Jack, nodding. "And I want to learn how to shift at will. Ricky said it's got something to do with adrenaline?"

"It's a dangerous thing, shifting at will," said Walter. "You might accidentally hurt someone, or-"

"Ricky told us about that awkward thing," said Z. "Please do not repeat it or I may throw myself off a cliff."

"Right," said Walter. "Anyway, it's risky."

"I know, but I want to," said Jack. 

"Understandable, it is nice to dip into the wolf," said Walter, nodding. "What you wanna do is embrace the wolf. Talk to him. He's a part of you, after all."

"And how do I do that?" asked Jack.

"Try some meditation," said Walter. "Just sit down and clear your mind, and you'll find your wolf resting there. Once you start talking to him, you'll be able to tap into his abilities. Better smell, better hearing, you might even be able to have wolf ears and a wolf tail like your friend, here." He gestured to Z's fox ears and multiple fox tails.

"That sounds awesome," said Jack, wondering if maybe he would also be able to tap into his wolf's ability to change his biological sex. Ydris refused to try again after he'd failed last time, and Jack didn't trust any of the other witches or wizards enough to change his sex. He didn't want to ask Walter about that, either, not knowing him enough to trust him yet.

"Is that all you needed?" asked Walter.

"Actually, I have a question," said Z.

"Go ahead," said Walter, looking up at her.

"You deal with silver artifacts sometimes, right?" asked Z.

"Yes," said Walter, nodding.

"How?" asked Z. "You're a werewolf, silver burns you."

"I use gloves," said Walter.

"Oh," said Z. "That makes a lot of sense."

"Sometimes we forget about the little things," said Walter.

"Well, we did see unicorns today," said Z.

"Ah, then that's understandable," said Walter. "That must've been exciting."

"It was," said Jack. Even if he hated what they did to him, he had to admit that they were beautiful creatures. "I'll try meditating. Thanks, Walter."

"No problem," said Walter. "Just do it in an isolated place, just in case your wolf has other ideas."

"Will do," said Jack. He mounted Dale again and rode away with Z, eager to try communing with his wolf. He realised, as he rode away, that his excitement at this new prospect was dampening the awful feelings of dysphoria, just enough that he'd forgotten about it for a moment.


End file.
